


let the sun beat on our forgetfulness

by ivermectin



Category: Gossip Girl (TV 2007)
Genre: College, Dan Humphrey is Not Gossip Girl, Multi, Polyamory, Studying, background serenessa because that's just who I am
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:02:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28029726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivermectin/pseuds/ivermectin
Summary: Dan is trying to study, with not much success.Nate and Blair attempt to help - again - with not much success.
Relationships: Nate Archibald/Dan Humphrey/Blair Waldorf
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	let the sun beat on our forgetfulness

**Author's Note:**

> it's the OT3!  
> title from ["Strawberries" by Edwin Morgan.](https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/strawberries/).  
> i wrote this as a break from studying. i am writing the same sentence again and again and again and -

Dan groans, sets his pencil down on a pile of three different books, smoothing out his crushed paper on which he’s been scribbling notes in the hope that he would actually remember them later. “Why did I sign up for this, again?”

“Because Serena told you that she didn’t think you’d be up for it, and you thought you could prove her wrong, and then both of you actually realised you enjoyed it,” Blair says, not missing a beat. “Humphrey, I see your progress chart. This is _dismal._ ”

“To be fair,” Dan says, leaning back in his chair, balancing the pencil between his nose and lips like a moustache of sorts, “while that _is_ why I opted for the Masters in Law and Criminology, in my defence, it was the only logical conclusion to that whole five years we spent tracking down the _real_ Gossip Girl.”

Nate nods solemnly. “You’re a real hero,” he says. “You’re like, I don’t know, Captain America.” He gives Dan a standard Archibald smile, pleasant and cheerful and impersonal, but his eyes twinkle with mischief. “Happy now?”

Dan frowns at his textbook, puts the pencil down. “Not very.”

Blair looks at Nate, raises an eyebrow. “Okay, I _cannot_ be the only person who thinks Bucky Barnes looks a little like Carter Baizen?”

“I don’t see it,” Dan says, only half-listening, flipping a page. “Why do I need to study all these laws, anyway?”

“Because you’re getting a _Masters,_ dude,” Nate says affectionately, kissing Dan’s cheek. “That _means_ you have to work for it.”

“I’m dying for it,” Dan groans.

Nate and Blair exchange a look over his head, and nod at each other. Blair gets up from her chair, sits on the table, right behind his laptop. From here, the light floods in from their fancy French window, and it hits her just right as she inclines her neck back, undoes the top button of her shirt.

“Incentive enough, Dan?”

Under the table, Nate puts a hand on Dan’s inner thigh, fingers drumming against the side of his knee and not going any higher up.

“Bloody teases,” Dan murmurs under his breath. Turning his head to look at Nate, he amends, “ _Both_ of you.”

“At least Serena’s not here to seduce you with erotically eaten strawberries,” Nate points out.

Dan smiles despite himself, but his frown is back almost immediately. His grip on his pencil tightens for a brief second.

Nate moves his hand, letting it rest platonically on Dan’s knee.

“How _is_ S doing?” Blair asks, looking at Nate.

“I think Vanessa is staging a similar intervention,” Nate says to Blair. “But there are probably shots involved.”

“It doesn’t fucking matter,” Dan groans miserably. “Serena’s a natural at this. She could ace it smashed. Me? Things go in through one ear and out of the other. What is it the youths are saying? No thoughts, head empty?”

“I made you flashcards,” Blair says helpfully. “Nate and I can quiz you on them. Every time you get something right, we’ll remove one article of clothing.”

Dan puts his head in his hands. “You’re both wearing five layers of clothing at least,” he says, the sound of it muffled through his hands.

Nate and Blair exchange a look.

“What can we do to help?” Nate asks.

“Say the word and we’ll make it happen,” Blair says. The gleam in her eye is like that of a particularly determined magpie, and it makes Dan smile just a little.

“Thanks for listening to me complain,” he says, instead. “I’ll try to be less of a bitch about this, but, uh,” he gestures to Blair to come closer, and kisses her deeply but quickly. Then, he turns his head, kissing Nate just as intensely and briefly. “Okay, that’ll do for now. Check on me again in an hour?”

Blair does the button of her shirt up again, looking mildly disappointed. It was _good_ lingerie. Nate catches her expression, makes eye-contact, mouths _Later._

“We’re going to go get croissants back, then,” Blair tells Dan as she takes Nate’s hand and leads him to the door. “Try and actually get something in your head by then?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Dan says. He’s opened a new textbook, and is mouthing a definition to himself silently. He looks up though, as Nate turns the doorknob, stepping out. “Hey, Archibald?”

“Yeah?” Nate asks.

“Don’t forget to bring strawberries,” Dan says, looking up from his textbook to smirk. “I want to see if you’re any good at... what did you say it was? Eating them erotically?”

“We can’t all be Serena,” Nate says.

“But to be fair, you are also blonde and beautiful,” Blair says drily to Nate. She gently shepherds him out the door, and says pointedly to Dan, “ _Bye._ ”

“Bye, Blair,” Dan says absent-mindedly. He can hear them bickering as they walk down the stairs, and it makes him feel a little better about everything. Being in uni during his late twenties is hitting different from how he’d expected it to hit, but at least he has his best friends, and the loves of his life by his side, making fun of him all through it.

**Author's Note:**

> putting my blog here is a bad habit, sure, but [you know the drill. xoxo](https://bisexualdanhumphrey.tumblr.com/)


End file.
